FARMING NOTES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 2, 24 April 1939, Page 2

FARMING NOTES

HEALTHY STOCK VALUE OF MINERALS Whilst very large numbers of minerals arc required by all farm stock _ these minerals are in nearly all cases present in the pasture and other foodstuffs in sufficient amount?, with the exception of phosphorus, calcium and the elements in common salt (sodium and chlorine(. The Tar, mcr should therefore befarc of paying fore (impounds which are not necessary for his stock. The ideal lick is the one which provides phosphorous and calcium •senarately from the salt, as the animal's appetite for these separate com poncnts is a far more accurate guage of its actual needs than any estimate made by man. All dairy farmers would, therefore, be well advised in their own interests to make licks available to their stocks. The absolute necessity for such both for cattle and sheep, has long been demonstrated, but da'iy farmers as a body s"em to make available to their cattle mixtures which in most caries are of little or no practical avlue. UTILISATION OF GRAZING LANDS The mc-t important step towards the grazing side of the dairying in. dustrv is the subdivision of th?farm, particularly the best and richest portions, into small paddocks.. The greater the number of small paddocks available the greater will be the use made of the pastureage nt its optimum stage of feeding growth. Tt has been demonstrated by analysis in England that gra-s cut at three. : weekly intervals retains the nonliquified, highly digestible character which it possesses at the end of a week's or a fortnight's growth, and that this characteristic of high digestibility obtained by cutting at three weekly intervals is maintained throughout the entire season. By having a large number of small paddocks_ which .can be rotationaily and heavily grazed for about two lays by the milking cows, and from two to three days by the followers and then permitted a three or four week's spell before being grazed again, it is possible always to have; availabV pasturage that retains its high d'gestibility and nutritive value which makes it eminently suitablu to supply the food requirements of most farm animals.. Moreover, in large paddocks considerable fool wastage occurs on account of excessive tramping and fouling of the oastures by the stock. The size of the paddocks will niain'v depend on the number of milking cows to be grazed, and on the fertiL : tv of the land. The figure generally "dopted for most coastal districts, for good paspalum-white clover is 12 cows per acre. A farmer milking on an average of 60 cows on this class of country would therefore require to subdivide into 5 acre padclocks in order to obtain proper control of growth and efficient utilisation of the pasturage. To reduce the cost of subdividing oaddocks, fences consisting of three barbed wires or the top wire plain ajid the two lower ones barbed, with posts 15 to 16 feet apart, can bo used instead of erecting costly permanent lines of fencing, as it may be necessary at a later date to alter cne general lay out of the farm. Each should open into a alne way,

FEEDING ENSILAGE 20 LBS PER COW DAILY Ensilage may be fed in normal times at the rate of 201bs per coi#. The class of ensilage may be raffed,• to include maize, barley, oaten or wheaten ensilage, and provided the ensilage is of good quality and free from mould, no variation in production results will be noted when changing from one to the other. It has been noted on occasions that the maize ensilage at the bottom of the silo has become exceedingly sour . and the cows refuse to eat it. excess souring is undoubtedly juice from the chaffed ci'op higher up in. the silos escaping under prejgpre and sinking to the bottom * where it undergoes thus increasing the acidity of the material. This defect, which results in the production of inferior ensilage, and consequently reduces milk yields, has been successfully overcome by placing approximately 3 feet of chaffed oaten or wheaten hay in the bottom of the silo. The excess juice' which escapes and sinks then mixes with the dry chaff hay and converts it into good quality ensilage, thus eliminating the waterlogging and souring which otherwise occurs. Tiie main value of ensilage in the ration lies in its succulence :«nd palatability. whilst its acidity stimulates the appetite and i 3 also an aid to which factor is tant in the case of milking cows. HANDY DAIRY SUGGESTIONS When the famous circum-navigtt-Capt James Cook, first had reason to give the Bay of Plenty its name, he little realised the prophetic nature of the title, or envisiagedthe manner in which th's remarkable tract of country would under tftfT influence of civilised farming methods become one of the most productive areas in the greatest dairying country in the world. Less than one hundred years one of the earliest visitors to thespreading Rangitaiki Plains locked down, on the great waste of swamp and rush and memoired the factjfihafc he visualised the time when under the hands of the hardy pioneers, the water would be drained and the land made to bloom and bring forth, to such a degree that the day would surely dawn when it would supporta population of one million souls. While the realisation of such prophesy has yet come there is nevertheless a steady trend towards its ultimate fulfilment and ,the fertile ifcinds.that are now carrying the (inest dairy herds in the Dominion are spreading the fame of New all over the world. The farmer hns become the guardian, of New Zealand's prosperity -and the mainspring of her primary ; income. The porgress or decline of the farmer spells prosperity or otherwise for the Dominion. •.